tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30952229Sun, 05 Oct 2014 03:37:52 +0000moronbloggerpublic transportRantings o'the Big GWhere I cry out against the world, stupidity and liberals (pretty much the same, really) in 100 dB goodness.http://gregorys-rantsite.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Gregory Kong)Blogger83125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30952229.post-6283244357101363968Fri, 20 Sep 2013 08:54:00 +00002013-09-20T16:54:14.717+08:00Blog clean-up<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">There is a serious problem when it is harder to make changes to your blog's layout than it is to actually just add a post. Just goes to show how long it's been since I did any actual blogging.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Fact of the matter is, I've been busy, and have been off the blogosphere for more than 3 years now. Keeping tabs of my own country's politics is more than depressing enough for me.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">But! Things are beginning to look up for Australia, where a number of my relatives are, and people (maybe) are becoming more awake in the US, so maybe it's time I went back into full power mode (when I have time).</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">And anyway, I shall persevere. Onwards!</span></div>http://gregorys-rantsite.blogspot.com/2013/09/blog-clean-up.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Gregory Kong)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30952229.post-7493891883724988566Tue, 03 Jul 2012 17:16:00 +00002012-07-04T01:16:57.515+08:00Happy Independence Day!<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>Wishing all Americans a Happy Fourth Of July.<br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=81090579-f39f-83ed-845d-04f4d0dd6d65' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>http://gregorys-rantsite.blogspot.com/2012/07/happy-independence-day.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Gregory Kong)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30952229.post-8242544915687681362Mon, 14 Mar 2011 16:01:00 +00002011-03-15T00:01:10.563+08:00The limits of engineering<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><font face='verdana'>A while back, I posted on the utter disgust I felt towards a particular short SF story concerning its abuse of the 'big lie, little lie' technique. I am reminded of it again at the immense and rather awesome (in the original sense of the word) earthquake + tsunami in Japan.<br/><br/>Japan's facing some nuclear fears over partial meltdowns in its reactors. The failsafes built into the systems... well, failed, one after the other. And no wonder, because whatever else Man has achieved, he's yet to make anything that's completely Nature-proof.<br/><br/>Now Japan's had a raw deal in terms of the nuclear world, having been bombed not once but twice. You would think that they would be the LAST people to go to nuclear power, and indeed it took them 20 years to move from 1 to 5 reactors, and just recently they were debating whether or not to increase those numbers. I'm guessing that the answer would be a pretty emphatic NO! at this stage. You'd also think that they'd be the ones to ridiculously over-engineer fudge factors into their nuclear reactors, with firsthand knowledge of what failed containment would do. Keep that in mind.<br/><br/>There's a limit to what can be done with human engineering efforts. You can fudge the factors a fair amount, but you hit diminishing returns after a point, and beyond that, it's just astronomically expensive. You'd have to have a really, really good reason to expend any amounts of money after that point - something usually reserved for mission-critical applications. Something governments - and Sir Richard Branson - can and would do.<br/><br/>Space travel - and I'm guessing the Japanese are thinking nuclear power plants - deserve that kind of astronomical expenditure, literally. That story <b>still </b>strikes me as being horribly unrealistic.<br/></font><br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=284da947-63c8-8811-8279-694d6c8f1787' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>http://gregorys-rantsite.blogspot.com/2011/03/limits-of-engineering.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Gregory Kong)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30952229.post-2394434876442124473Thu, 30 Dec 2010 16:18:00 +00002010-12-31T00:18:55.357+08:00Free? Not so much...<div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif;">Probably not a big deal for most of you, but I would like to talk about 'free' software for a bit.</div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif;">Richard Stallman is the man to go to (and blame) for the start of this entire issue. He created a bunch of UNIX-like tools and called them GNU (short for GNU is Not Unix). GNU would go on to become almost a separate OS by itself, only lacking the kernel, and when the Linux kernel came about, hey presto! some few generations later you get Ubuntu.</div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif;">Now Stallman came up with something called the GNU General Public Licence (GPL), which in its preamble states that the licence is supposed to *give* you rights, not take them away. The GNU Foundation stands for free software, where free stands for 'free as in speech' and not 'free as in beer', although the two are not necessarily mutually exclusive. In this, Stallman's a bit of an odd cookie, because for a time he was entirely against the entire 'open-source' movement, which called for the sources of all software to be freely available for examination... a necesary byproduct of the GPL.</div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif;">My point is, free software... isn't. Not if distributed under the GPL, and not especially under GPLv3. It may be free beer software, but it certainly isn't free speech software. Not in the way we understand free speech. You see, the GPL is an infectious licence. If you want to use GPLed software in any significant way in your own project, you also have to release it under GPL, or a GPL-compatible licence. And you had better make sure that you follow every single detail of the licence carefully, otherwise they'll sic their lawyers on you.</div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif;">Worst of all, many in the FOSS community will do exactly the same thing. It has always struck me as strange that for a bunch of people seemingly against copyrights and patents and making money over software, they are the first to wield the power of the courts. NOw I know that there are many reasons, but essentially, there is no real common ground for these fanatics. You will note that most of the proprietary software companies will release freeware programs, and even work in open source, but watch and see if it works the other way around. It's like watching a software jihad in action, only there is no God but GPL and Stallman is its prophet or something. And oh yes, Microsoft is the Great Satan.</div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif;">You want a truly free licence? Try this one out.</div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif;"><br /></div><blockquote><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif;">DO WHAT THE FUCK YOU WANT TO PUBLIC LICENSE </span><br style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif;">Version 2, December 2004 </span><br style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif;">Copyright (C) 2004 Sam Hocevar <sam@hocevar.net> </sam@hocevar.net></span><br style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif;">Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim or modified copies of this license document, and changing it is allowed as long as the name is changed. </span><br style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif;">DO WHAT THE FUCK YOU WANT TO PUBLIC LICENSE</span><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif;"><br />TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION</span><br style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif;"><br />0. You just DO WHAT THE FUCK YOU WANT TO.</span></blockquote><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif;"></div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif;">Or, this one.</div><br /><blockquote><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif;">You can use this code in whatever way you want, as long as you don't try</span> <span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif;">to claim you wrote it.</span></blockquote><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif;">Let's see some FOSS guys use THOSE licences. Which, by the way, they can - they're valid free software licences, and Debian Linux distros come with software under the WTFPL.</span>http://gregorys-rantsite.blogspot.com/2010/12/free-not-so-much.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Gregory Kong)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30952229.post-8311154702948797700Wed, 23 Jun 2010 12:49:00 +00002010-06-23T20:50:08.682+08:00The best kind of fiction<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><font face='verdana'>When you read a book, you generally want some form of escapism. I mean, can you imagine reading a book that details what <i>you</i> do on a daily basis all over again? Only if explosions or a torrid affair came about in that book would you read it, I imagine.<br/><br/>Which is why some people favour F&amp;SF. It is, after all, no sillier than Mills and Boon, and it is generally nice to fantasise about riding a dragon, or traversing whole parsecs in seconds. At some point in any kind of fiction genre, however, the suspension of disbelief suddenly fails, and the unreality of it all becomes all too apparent.<br/><br/>It can be a fine line to toe, and really, at what point does it stop being escapism and start becoming a Wallbanger? Well, I argue that the line is in human experience and human nature. That is to say, if you set out to change anything or everything else, you must maintain realism in human nature, and if you set out to change human nature, everything else must remain realistic. And of course, if you're not writing about humans at all, then you had better stick to very well-known tropes.<br/><br/>Take for instance one of the worst pieces of tripe ever written in SF-dom, in my experience. I won't give you the title, that's how disgusted I am with it, but essentially the whole plot revolves around space travel that is precisely calculated to the erg, so much so that any unplanned factor (such as a stowaway, say) would make that travel trip an utter failure, and must be dealt with as swiftly as possible to return to the planned numbers. Surprise, surprise, on one of these rescue mission trips, the pilot discovers a stowaway who didn't know the rules and just wanted to go see her brother. The pathos, and indeed the whole thrust of the story revolved around the harshness of the rules, so she had to be jettisoned to save everybody else...<br/><br/>... and while emotionally tearing (which is one of the reasons I don't like it), it's also headbangingly unrealistic. In any day and age, but especially one involving <i>space travel</i>, for goodness' sake. I mean, think about it. Any engineer worth his salt will tell you that in order to build a bridge meant for 2-ton trucks, you first design a bridge that can withstand 10-ton trucks. Generally, you do that because you cannot predict how long your bridge has to last, or what kind of stresses it will undergo, or what will happen to the bridge in the future. Fudge factors and safety calculations like this are second nature to any engineer - and that's just to build bridges! Can you imagine the kind of fudge factors that would be built into something as dangerous and as hostile to human life as interplanetary travel?<br/><br/>Think about it for a moment. Think about the amount of money that was poured into making Man go to the moon. Think about Mission Control. Think about the ridiculous level of training astronauts go through even *today*. Or take more mundane, more run-of-the-mill examples. Think about air travel. How much effort goes into safety and security (whether they work or not is immaterial). How much goes into ensuring that even in the worst case scenario (engines blow up or shut down cold), the airplane can still function as a glider. How much sheer thought and engineering went into it, and the enormous fudge factors used in planning fuel requirements for any flight - including RESERVE fuel! And you want us to believe that all of this was thrown away the instant we met something as inherently unnatural as microgravity and outer space?<br/><br/>The artist behind Schlock's Mercenaries describes this as "the big lie and the little lie". If you want us to swallow the big lie (i.e. space travel), you need to ensure you don't tell the little lie (no fudge factors in engineering).<br/><br/>The author of that short story I mentioned above did not follow this maxim. It spoiled the story for me.<br/></font><br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=f9dab0ad-1fb2-8c05-997d-812b7f4ad910' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>http://gregorys-rantsite.blogspot.com/2010/06/best-kind-of-fiction.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Gregory Kong)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30952229.post-5736865808078846616Fri, 07 May 2010 12:51:00 +00002010-05-07T20:51:18.754+08:00Archived message (cross-posted)<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>One thing I really hate is abuse of resources. In this case, some script kiddie so-called 'hacker' is launching a DoS (yes, present tense as I write this) against BakaBT, which is one of the cooler torrent sites out there. I hate hate hate this kind of thing, so if this is the only thing I can do, then by golly, I will do it.<br/><br/>And to you, you stupid kid, what the hell do you think is going to happen when several hundred thousand angry otaku start narrowing down your physical location to within a few metres? Beware the power of 4chan, and quite possibly a grand alliance if you keep this up.<br/><br/>Below is the message that, as requested, I am posting verbatim.<br/><br/>------xxxx------<br/>How to save an Internet community <br/>Hello BakaBT community and people of the Internet,<br/><br/>We need your help! Please spread this message everywhere on the Internet.<br/>If you have a blog, twitter or myspace or know someone with a blog, twitter or myspace copy this message verbatim!<br/><br/>I am writing this message right now as my community website is unreachable due to a continued DoS attack.<br/>A DoS attack is a Denial-of-Service attack that drowns all normal traffic going to the server by sending a tremendous amount of (fake) traffic.<br/>It is the bane of any website owner as there is very little you can do against it, other than hope the attack will stop or invest in special expensive DoS protection hardware.<br/><br/>The demand of the attacker is that we remove information we posted about his person a while ago on our blog after he did an earlier (simpler) attack.<br/>We managed to dig up all sorts of interesting information thanks to another site (www.0xyg3n.com) which had also been attacked by the same 'hacker'.<br/><br/>Our site has been down for 24 hours, after which the 'hacker' promised to stop the attack and give us 1 week to remove the message.<br/>The attack never stopped, normal traffic was able to siphon through so the server seemed reachable. But this means he obviously can not, or will not, negotiate with us.<br/><br/>We have thought a while about what to do, and we have reached some conclusions:<br/>Apparently there is something valuable in the message that we posted as the 'hacker' is spending a fair dime attacking our server (DoS attacks 'sell' for about $60 for 24 hours).<br/>There is nothing that we can do to make him stop this attack. Yes, we could give in to his demand, but why would he stop the attack then? He sure isn't stopping now. And then what is next? last time he asked for my resignation.<br/><br/>So, we have decided to fight fire with fire. Fight a distributed attack with distribution, and for this we need your help!<br/>If you have a blog, twitter or myspace, or know someone with a blog, twitter or myspace, copy this message verbatim!<br/>If this message is copied many times to many different sites all across the Internet no one will be able to erase it from the Internet.<br/>What happens to our website and 6 year old community? I don't know. It would be a shame to loose it over something so trivial.<br/><br/>Below is a summary of the information we found about him (please copy this as well as that is the whole idea of this message!):<br/><br/>--<br/>I also have his home IP from the comments 77.162.16.18 [...] Anyway since then I have noticed I’ve been getting hits for people doing a search for his site 0xyG3N.info (which I’ll point out has been offline for some time) I would also just like to say that his site has nothing to do with me everything I do online is only via 0xyg3n.com [...] He also uses the username roffamaffia which I suggested he should go back to using. He also uses kyuubinyuu@hotmail.com as an alternate email to the msn one.<br/><br/>I also know his name which is mesut baysan he’s 15 and lives in Dongen Noord-Brabant Netherland oppps. I also have a home address but I’m not going to post that up as I’m not sure if its totally correct or not. I also have some other details that I’ll save for a later post if needed.<br/>--<br/>Our Twitter: http://twitter.com/BakaBT<br/>Our blog: http://blog.bakabt.com/2009/08/23/kdos/ (use Google cache if the domain is unreachable)<br/>Our backup blog: http://baka.applehomicide.com/2009/08/23/kdos/<br/>0xyg3n's blog (not the hacker): http://www.0xyg3n.com/?p=555 about his encounter<br/>Looks like http://gbatmw.net/showthread.php?tid=13506 they were having some problems with 'Mesut' as well.<br/><br/>E-mail / Live:<br/>- us3n3xt@live.nl (old)<br/>- amaterasu_@live.jp (latest known)<br/><br/>Known nicknames:<br/>- 0xyG3N (note the capital G and N)<br/>- Roffamaffia<br/>- Sasuke-<br/><br/>Help us save our community and give power back to the webmasters!<br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=a1c64074-8449-8ca5-ac6e-470dc457a24c' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>http://gregorys-rantsite.blogspot.com/2010/05/archived-message-cross-posted.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Gregory Kong)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30952229.post-172894188231128116Thu, 01 Apr 2010 14:53:00 +00002010-04-01T22:53:25.190+08:00Maundy Thursday<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>As Holy Week draws to a close, with Good Friday just around the corner and Easter but three days away, it behooves me to reflect a little on what I've been doing on my life, and what lies ahead; for me on a personal, small scale, and for the world as a whole.<br/><br/>As if blogging hasn't been sparse, but I intend to increase it.<br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=b41e787f-a679-8a6e-8a30-ba883cc2e02f' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>http://gregorys-rantsite.blogspot.com/2010/04/maundy-thursday.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Gregory Kong)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30952229.post-834260585086904840Thu, 01 Apr 2010 14:51:00 +00002010-04-01T22:51:47.706+08:00Powered with Zemanta<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>Okay, so this is a simple notification that I'm using ScribeFire to write some of my posts, and that it's using something called Zemanta to load tracking pixels. I usually hate these things, because they give a whole lot of data, sometimes unintented, to the guy who's put them up on the pages (in this case, that would be me). But the low-down on Zemanta is kinda thin, and I have absolutely no idea how this is supposed to work.<br/><br/>Anyway, let's trial it out, and see if it drives my readership from 1 to 0.<br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=37c901a5-b4d7-8e9c-8fa0-4c77725129d5' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>http://gregorys-rantsite.blogspot.com/2010/04/powered-with-zemanta.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Gregory Kong)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30952229.post-8713838799138452849Fri, 12 Feb 2010 13:05:00 +00002010-02-12T21:06:37.418+08:00Gong Xi Fa Chai<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>Wishing everyone a Happy Chinese New Year!<br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=c73899ef-6a7f-8e21-a9e3-877a729ebad8' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>http://gregorys-rantsite.blogspot.com/2010/02/gong-xi-fa-chai.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Gregory Kong)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30952229.post-566913545464435438Fri, 25 Dec 2009 03:41:00 +00002009-12-25T11:42:04.669+08:00Merry Christmas!<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>To anybody reading my blog: Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!<br/><br/>This is the time, as Advent draws to an end and Christmas Day is upon us, that we take the time to commemorate Jesus' coming into the world two millennia ago, taking on our humanity upon Himself, living as one of us, being born as a helpless babe in the meanest of conditions. And we anticipate with readiness His Second Coming; not as a babe but as a King and God, not in a stable but from the heavens, ushered not by the animals but by the hosts of Heaven trumpeting His triumphant return.<br/><br/>To any Jewish readers; Orthodox, Conservative or Reform - rejoice! Messiah is coming! Be ready to receive Him when He comes. No one knows the time nor the place, but we know that it is soon.<br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=d48ca9e5-e10f-810a-91fb-2c0975107062' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>http://gregorys-rantsite.blogspot.com/2009/12/merry-christmas.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Gregory Kong)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30952229.post-8657644773999371752Fri, 11 Dec 2009 04:55:00 +00002009-12-11T12:55:00.226+08:00Banhammer III: Banhammer Resurrection<span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">Okay, so if anybody's interested, Ace hosted two epic, epic threads on his blog. On the topic of banninating anybody who hides their racism behind lame jokes. Major simplification, but hey, at 5,000++++++ comments combined, are you gonna read through allathat or believe me? :)</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">Anyways, in sheer link whorage style, have at it! The third round of Banhammer, hosted on this crappy blog nobody ever reads. Give me some love! Send me dirty pix! (Hot Chicks, Hot Lezzies, Hot Trannies only, don't need some old geezer showing of his schlort.)</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, sans-serif;">Post inspired by <a href="http://minx.cc/?blog=86&amp;post=295629#c7533224">crystal</a> here.</span>http://gregorys-rantsite.blogspot.com/2009/12/banhammer-iii-banhammer-resurrection.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Gregory Kong)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30952229.post-5675782432510523258Thu, 10 Dec 2009 14:12:00 +00002009-12-10T22:12:35.627+08:00The Mega Threads<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>Gentlemen, I am proud to own myself a moronblogger. Indeed, it was the esteemed <a href='http://ace.mu.nu/' target='_blank'>Ace of Spades</a> who was my gateway to political blogs and the world of blogging in general - yes, Instapundit is indeed the Blogfather, but Ace was the one who showed me the way.<br/><br/>Therefore, when the Head Moron himself deigns to write a rant (and follow it up subsequently with another one), it behooves me to read closely and carefully, and to apply his guidance to my own writings.<br/><br/>But dude. 3,300++++++ comments? On <a href='http://minx.cc/?post=295629' target='_blank'>one post alone</a>? I only contributed about 1% to that volume. I daren't venture near <a href='http://minx.cc/?post=295667' target='_blank'>the second thread</a>, for fear of creating Skynet on Pixy's servers.<br/><br/>Incidentally, I agree with what Ace had to say... eventually, after he explained himself clearer. But hey, these things do happen even to the very best of us.<br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=afdb8a41-43ba-8ec6-a5e9-93088172a2fa' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>http://gregorys-rantsite.blogspot.com/2009/12/mega-threads.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Gregory Kong)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30952229.post-1084063129237262802Wed, 25 Nov 2009 14:45:00 +00002009-11-25T22:45:32.947+08:00Well played, Allahpundit<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><font face='tahoma'>Holy crap.<br/><br/>Okay, so let me set the scene for you. Allahpundit, one of the resident bloggers on HotAir, posted a little bit on the Navy SEALs that have (as is their right) called for a court-martial into their alleged busting of some jihadist's lip. That's right, they're in the dock for the charge of having given a military-murdering Muslim terrorist a fat lip. Or so said jihadist claims.<br/><br/>I know, you all thinking WTF? I agree, I agree. Nothing controversial about that, really. But here's what happened. AP says, hey, these guys will probably escape with nothing more than a slap on the wrist. And it's a good thing, he says, because then other troops will be reminded not to do anything more seriously stupid that can be used to politicise the issue.<br/><br/>Ooh, that got on the hackles of Uncle Jumbo at Blackfive, and he's unleashed several cans of whoopass on AP. AP links to him, and well, next thing you know, ~300-400 comments everywhere.<br/><br/>Okay, here's the thing.<br/><br/>1. AP's paid to do this sort of thing. Get traffic for HA, I mean. I don't know if he set out deliberately to light a fire under some milblogger somewhere, but you can't blame him for wanting to capitalise on the reaction. See, this sort of thing is unlikely to really cause any major damage amongst the VRWC-type blogger community, but for at least a day or two, it will get said community seriously engaged. Engagement means comments. Comments mean traffic. Traffic means $$$.<br/><br/>2. And really, Uncle Jimbo went waaaaaayyyy out of his normal route to beat up on AP. I mean, Uncle Jimbo got het up over, afaik, three or four words of AP's entire post. That, and the tone which suggests AP believes they did.<br/><br/>Let's be honest. Would any of us care if they did, on a personal level? Not me, that's for sure. I'd be surprised it was only a fat lip. I'm sure SEALs could come up with creatively painful ways in which a person could slip, trip, fall, or otherwise hurt himself without any visible or evident marks anywhere - which leads me to think they probably didn't do it.<br/><br/>Now, AP probably didn't know that there's no such thing as a wrist slap in the spec ops community once it reaches court-martial level. Hell, *I* didn't know that either, until Uncle Jimbo, ah, enlightened the rest of us non-military types. Which is itself deserving of a rant. I mean, wtf? WTF!!!??? Isn't the whole idea of a court or a tribunal or whatever it's called to CLEAR YOU OF WRONGDOING IF YOU'RE FUCKING INNOCENT!!!??? So you're telling me some REMF looks over these guys' records and goes, "Hmm, says here they were court-martialled, but they were cleared of all charges and specifications, and in fact the President of the Court is fully convinced they didn't do anything, but we're gonna deep-six their careers anyway and give them administrative discharges"? Doesn't that suggest there is something seriously FUCKED-UP about the process?<br/><br/>Seriously. Who. In. Hell. is gonna know THAT? Sure as hell no actively serving squid's gonna blab to a well-known blogger with ties to Michelle Malkin (and hence Fox) and lose their jobs over this, right? Is AP supposed to go hunt up retired squids to get the real deal from them, when he didn't even know that apparently the Quintessons are in charge of military justice - at least as it pertains to actual members of the 'friendly' force?<br/><br/>3. And the level of insanity on display is truly amazing. It's not DKos level, nowhere near that, but for the right-wing blogosphere, it's practically a full moon. Guys, when you compare AP to LGF, you instantly make yourselves and your arguments irrelevant. AP and CJ cannot even be classified as the same <i>species</i>. AP's still nominally Republican, he can still laugh at himself and at others, and he has not afaik lowered the banhammer in a massive way, nor has he himself started shooting out hate-filled and maniac posts on a regular and frequent basis.<br/><br/>He made one post, and no doubt, he screwed up somewhat. And you're crucifying him over it. Mind you, I understand if you've been storing up a fair amount of negative feelings towards AP; but he's been at it for ages and I'm not about to let him get under my skin.<br/><br/>And really, if AP was the purple RINO who's out to sink the right wing, you're making it real easy for him to claim victory. Instead of the story being the shameful way in which the current Navy and Administration is treating its elite military units sent to do the dangerous and dirty work, it's now on how AP's pissing everyone off. Well done, gentlemen, what a way to take the spotlight off the true travesty.<br/><br/>At the end of the day, AP's just doing his job. Maybe a little more effectively than he thought, but the mark of a good businessman is the ability to take control and ride serendipity. All the way to the bank.<br/><br/>Good job, Allahpundit.<br/><br/>Now get back to work.<br/></font><br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=1527ef7e-a5ee-8f10-b4e5-50e0befa1503' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>http://gregorys-rantsite.blogspot.com/2009/11/well-played-allahpundit.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Gregory Kong)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30952229.post-5958437684049130902Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:37:00 +00002009-10-23T23:12:10.845+08:00Where’s the proof?<div style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">One of the blogs on my blogroll, Samizdata, had a post on Tony Blair and atheism or something of the sort, I forget. Anyways, it quickly shifted tone in the comments to centre on the what is the nature of God, religious belief and whatnot. You know, the usual stuff when you get clashes between atheists and religious people.<br /></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">Although, perhaps that’s the nature of the problem. Atheists refuse to believe that they, too, espouse a religious belief. Which, to modern ears, sounds quite logical; after all, atheists don’t have a belief in a god, or many gods. But when you break down that simple statement, you begin to understand the scope of the nonsense that passes of most of atheism nowadays.<br /></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">You see, the nature of the issue is simple. Atheists say they hold a negative belief; they do not believe in God (or gods). They go on to say that this does not mean they believe that there is no God. Why is this important? Well, because that positive statement “There is no God (or gods)” is a theological statement and a theological belief, which makes it religious in nature. And atheists can’t admit they, too, have a faith of sorts.<br /></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">This is clearly demonstrated using any other example. If I don’t believe in acupuncture, it’s not really that that I don’t believe in its existence, but that I don’t believe in its claims. However, if I speak of not believing in the Yeti, then indeed I don’t believe in the existence of the Yeti. Which means I believe the Yeti does not exist.<br /></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">Right, moving along then. The other reason, of course, is because when you espouse a positive belief, you can be challenged to prove it. Far easier to espouse it negatively, that is to say, you do <i>not</i> hold on to a particular belief. But logically, you see, in every instance but especially this one, you cannot readily escape the situation. The statement “There is a God (or gods)” can either be true, false or undetermined; logically speaking. Those who believe it say it’s true. Those who don’t believe it say either it’s false or undetermined. Those who say it’s undetermined are called agnostics. Therefore, atheists are the ones calling it false. And if that statement is false, then then the opposing statement “There is no god” must be true. And if so, then by the Law of Contradiction, the atheists must believe the opposing statement is true.<br /></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">Well, if that is the case, then the atheist must also defend his position. He cannot assume it as given or as a default. If he wishes to do so, then he admits that his belief is, rather than something rational, in fact is more of an axiom than anything else. Which leaves him on exactly the same level as any other religious believer, who also base their metaphysical framework on axioms.<br /></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">But here’s something I want all atheists and agnostics to think about carefully. As a Christian, I am constantly being asked why I believe what I believe. Part and parcel; you have to be ready to defend your faith. But let me turn the question around to the atheists in a different form. What would make <i>you</i> believe in God? Bearing in mind that we’re talking about an omnipotent Being that is far beyond our understanding and our intellect to grasp.<br /></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">You know what? I’ll bet anything you like that every single atheist will have a different answer, and it will all involve God acting like a cosmic performer trying to ace His audition. Oh, there are some atheists who have seen the evidence, and changed their minds after reviewing the facts, but the rest? Hah!<br /></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">Whereas I can tell you that if you show irrefutable proof that Jesus Christ never existed, or that he died and was buried and NEVER ROSE AGAIN, that would end Christianity dead in its tracks. This is because Christianity is a religion rooted in historical fact. Atheism isn’t.<br /></div>http://gregorys-rantsite.blogspot.com/2009/10/wheres-proof.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Gregory Kong)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30952229.post-8669735895577809650Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:04:00 +00002009-10-05T23:04:17.580+08:00Relationships<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>It should come as no surprise to anyone that I am a conservative-leaning sort of fellow, both fiscally as well as socially. Hence, I do subscribe to quite a largish number of right-leaning blogs, most of which are in my blogroll. One of these blogs, or rather, new media platform, is Pajamas Media. Their Web Video platform, also known as PJTV, showcases commercial-free conservative and libertarian (and yes, the occasional lefty) voices mostly in talk-show formats.<br/><br/>One of them is Mrs Instapundit, Dr Helen Smith. And I was just catching up with her video on polyamoury. Here's the thing in itself; she prefaces it with talking about gay marriage and how many of us fear the slippery slope down to polygamy and polyandry and so on. Lo and behold, she finds two people who are heading up the World Polyamoury Federation or somesuch, and puts them up front and centre.<br/><br/>Now, mind you, they played it so straight I wasn't sure whether they were on the level or whether there was a large amount of tongue-in-cheek involved in the whole video. Certainly, the two reps sounded quite serious, and Dr Smith herself asked cogent and in all appearance serious questions about their philosophy and way of life. Still, I can't quite tell.<br/><br/>They state their first principle is Hippocratic; first do no harm. I am reminded of this because basically, human relationships are, on a fundamental level, broken. And instead of repairing it, or aiming to restore right relationships, these people are going in the exact opposite.<br/><br/>You see, humans have an incredible capacity for emotion and commitment. And the level of emotion and commitment put into anything depends very much on the proportionate amount you are invested in it; both how much you have invested in it, and how much of the investment itself you have.<br/><br/>It stands to reason that if you have invested 10% of yourself (time, or money, or effort) in something, you are going to be much less committed and emotionally involved in it than if you have invested 75% of yourself in it. Similarly, you would expect that if you are amongst ten thousand other investors, you would care much less than if you are amongst only five. Or two. And if you are the sole investor in something, chances are you're going to care a lot about it.<br/><br/>What happens when you are invested in something that has a limited number of other people also invested in it? Well, chances are, you will end up with the <a href='http://www.worldscibooks.com/business/etextbook/6800/6800_chap01.pdf' target='_blank'>Yeo Hiap Seng debacle</a>. Everyone has a different opinion and agenda, you see, and trying to move forwards in a united fashion was almost impossible - indeed, by the third generation, it was completely impossible and destroyed the family relationships between the Yeos. Now imagine the same situation repeated many-fold as you are not only invested in one, but multiple such investments. You will end up with conflicts between the various investments you have made, unless you are exceedingly careful in managing your investments.<br/><br/>What makes you think that sexual and intimate relationships between people are any different to this? In the YHS incident, no one has any real answers. The only thing that may have worked was ensuring that a single party was dominating, so that you could have a proper leader and an indisputable direction. Fancy trying that in a marriage! The Bible records many accounts of polygamy (one man having multiple wives)... and not a single one of those accounts was it ever recorded that the man had less than the usual marital conflicts. In fact, with the two or more wives constantly jockeying for position, it was more of a headache than usual!<br/><br/>In relationships as well as in economics, you see, it makes sense to specialise. There is always something in which you have a comparative advantage; there is always something you are better at, proportionally, than others. You specialise (i.e. become exclusive) and then you trade. When you try to be too diverse, hold too many positions, a significant amount of your resources go into simply maintenance rather than real growth and real productivity. It is the same with relationships. Even if you fell in love with twins, there will always be one of them whom you will love more, care for more, cherish more. Try to maintain both relationships and inevitably, everyone gets hurt.<br/><br/>Of course, that's assuming that everyone's got skin in the game. If you're not really invested in the relationship, then you don't get hurt as much... but that kinda defeats the whole idea, doesn't it?<br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=fe688f74-a214-879f-98c4-4d0ca85e9b27' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>http://gregorys-rantsite.blogspot.com/2009/10/relationships.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Gregory Kong)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30952229.post-5352871080924609729Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:19:00 +00002009-10-02T01:19:27.050+08:00The Roman Polanski conundrum<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>He raped a 13 year old girl. He pleaded guilty. He ran away to France before he was sentenced. He has been a fugitive from justice for over three decades.<br/><br/>Those are the facts of the matter. Why is there a conundrum?<br/><br/>Good question. One would have to ask Hollywood and the elites that question.<br/><br/>The sexual drive is very strong. You can make 7 year old children look smokingly sultry - let alone a girl who's on the verge of developing into womanhood. So what? Millions of men are able to restrain themselves and <i>not</i> behave like a bunch of mongrels over a bitch in heat. Roman Polanski not only showed a lack of impulse control, he premeditated the rape of this girl. He got her drunk, drugged her and then raped her in as many ways as he could think up of.<br/><br/>And he showed no regret or remorse after that.<br/><br/>Well, fuck him. I hope he gets the book thrown at him. You'd better watch your step, 'cause pedophiles don't have a very good time in prison.<br/><br/>I really cannot believe this subject is even up for discussion.<br/><br/>Next up, Obama and Co try to squirm health insurance crappiness into law despite their fellow Americans telling them how much they hate it. Conservatives need to keep up the heap against these bozos in Congress and the White House.<br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=87818f13-dd8a-84de-8171-4f65787b04f1' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>http://gregorys-rantsite.blogspot.com/2009/10/roman-polanski-conundrum.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Gregory Kong)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30952229.post-6661497461216718160Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:32:00 +00002009-09-28T23:32:14.633+08:00The Decalogue - Core laws for morally upright individuals<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>The Decalogue, or the Ten Commandments, is quite possibly the most important set of laws ever legislated. After all, it had to be given twice. They are recited at church and synagogue services, and they do form the bedrock of the Western, Judaeo-Christian legal framework -and they said you couldn't legislate morality. Yes, you certainly can.<br/><br/>It behooves us, therefore, to take a close look at these commandments - all of which, by the way, are reinforced in the New Testament (except possibly the law of the Sabbath, but then again the precedent for the Sabbath is pre-Abrahamic), so it's not as if Christians get a free ride on this!<br/><br/>I thought I'd start with the first commandment that had an explicit promise tagged on to it. This happens to be Commandment No 5;<br/><blockquote> 12 “ Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you.<br/></blockquote>(<a href='http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus+20&amp;version=NKJV' target='_blank'>Exodus 20:12, NKJV</a>)<br/><br/>North Asians (the Chinese, the Japanese, and the Koreans) tend to take this commandment waaaayyyy too much to heart. Confucius, one of our greatest sages and philosophers, was the one who recommended ancestor worship - extending our honour and reverence for our earthly parents beyond the grave, which is one step too far. But it just goes to show how important we view our elders.<br/><br/>Now, none of God's commandments are particularly onerous. And you'd figure this one was easier than most; after all, our parents were our source of life. They fed us, clothed us, cleaned us up, taught us to fear the Lord (well, mine did at any rate). They are our guardians, guides, counsellors, and cheerleaders. They will punish us when we go wrong against their warnings and instructions, and they will encourage us to get back up when we fall down. It is estimated that parents spend ~USD10k/year on each kid, and I know Asian parents can spend quite a bit more, just for the necessities (we're not talking about moron parents who get their kids designer dresses here). They give up a quarter of their lives to bring us up, and a bit more worrying over us once we're grown.<br/><br/>So, at least, is what the institution of parents supposed to be all about. While it is difficult, gut-wrenching and oftentimes heartbreaking work, motherhood and fatherhood are blessings from God, a direct reflection of His relationship with us, His children. But you know what adolescents are like; we want to be free from our parents' authority, we think we're the ones in the right, and we're outright ungrateful little beasts.<br/><br/>Therefore, to all of you godly parents who are striving to raise your chidren to the best of your abilities, my most profound respect and best wishes. To my own parents, in the unlikely event they read this; I love you. I honour you. I respect all that you have done for me and for my siblings. I hope you can rest easier now that we are established members of society, and while I have yet to marry, the next generation is already here. You have done right by us by any number of standards. Journey mercies, and come back safely from Melbourne.<br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=dca8ca7e-eaec-8622-b9d9-99ed91ad9da3' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>http://gregorys-rantsite.blogspot.com/2009/09/decalogue-core-laws-for-morally-upright.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Gregory Kong)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30952229.post-8068708336984156457Sat, 26 Sep 2009 17:47:00 +00002009-09-27T01:48:18.116+08:00Anime Awesomeness and Badassery<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><font face='verdana'>I don't know how many people actually read this blog, and of those who do, who is actually into Japanese animation. But for those of you who are, you're likely aware that there are several genres of anime, just like its counterpart media manga. Now, in theory I should be into <i>seinen </i>manga and anime, since that is the age group I'm in, and will be for a while (adult man). But I guess my mental age has never really progressed much beyond <i>shonen </i>(young man). I do enjoy <i>some</i> seinen titles (and also, because seinen by definition includes the more '<i>ecchi</i>' stuff, then yeah, that too), but for the most part my tastes lie in the shonen category.<br/><br/>Shonen manga and anime, catering as they do to the adolescent male crowd, are heavily action-oriented. Romance, rivalries and whatever else, you can imagine, are at the schoolkid level. Watch a couple of epidoes of Naruto and you'll get the picture.<br/><br/>Now, as Takahashi Rumiko has proven in InuYasha, Japanese culture, civilisation and mythology is exceedingly rich, and indeed, if one adds in the Chinese component as well (which she did), you can come up with an incredible storyline; one that fluidly blends both Middle Ages and Modern World without a hint of Western influence anywhere. Well, except in the technology, of course.<br/><br/>But it is a fact that many Japanese (and not just mangaka) are infatuated with Christianity - or more precisely, Christianity as it is commonly understood with regards to its superficial trappings. This is why many Japanese get married in churches in traditional Christian ceremonies wearing Christian wedding garb, and why Christmas is a MAJOR festival in Japan, and why in a country where 1% of its population are Christian, every other hentai or ecchi manga/anime features nuns and most normal anime have a church or two - complete with priest - somewhere in the storyline. And let's not talk about the weddings; I don't think I've seen a Japanese anime wedding where they actually wear Japanese clothes.<br/><br/>In some ways, this is a shame. One thing is, Japanese culture and tradition is quite rich in and of itself. I mean, you have the shrines, and the miko, and the Buddhist/Zen hermits and monks, and what not. The saddest thing to me, though, is that Japanese have not really used the sourcebook of Christianity as inspiration for their storylines, and this is truly a shame. Well, I've seen a manga depicting the life of Jesus, but that's hardly a genre in itself, and I think it should be.<br/><br/>Because, when you read the Bible, you notice that large chunks of it can be turned straight into a bizzaro-world shonen anime with absolutely no changes required. Mind you, most shonen anime is bizzaro-world. Gigantic freaking mecha fighting each other, ninja flying through forests and replicating themselves, katana-wielding shinigami unleashing ki-powered attacks in mid-air, aliens with power levels OVER NINE THOUSAND!!! - suffice it to say, there's not that many shonen titles out there that are focused on 'slice of life' where life is pretty ordinary and drama-free.<br/><br/>But right from the start, the Bible gives mangaka a run for their money - not to mention their imagination. In Genesis 3, when Kami-sama (God) chases Adam and Eve out of the garden, He places angels with HUGE FREAKING FLAMING SWORDS to guard against anyone trying to return. Won't you like to see what a KyoAni team could do with the Tower of Babel, which pierces the heavens? How about Lot fleeing Sodom and Gomorrah? Lava rising from the ground and several meteors hitting the city setting everything on fire. Yu-Gi-Oh! had the Namonaki Pharaoh (Aten); heck, I'd pay real money to see the Ten Plagues hit Egypt. And the part after that, when 300+ people got swallowed by the ground? Oh yeah!<br/><br/>That's just the first two books. You want to get a truly awesome, badass, what-do-you-mean-it-wasn't-made-on-drugs storyline? Just animate the Revelation to John without changing it in any way. Some choice scenes;<br/><br/></font><blockquote><font face='verdana'>2 Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne. 3 And He who sat there was[a] like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, in appearance like an emerald. 4 Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and on the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white robes; and they had crowns[b] of gold on their heads. 5 And from the throne proceeded lightnings, thunderings, and voices.[c] Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the[d] seven Spirits of God. <br/></font><font face='verdana'>6 Before the throne there was[e] a sea of glass, like crystal. And in the midst of the throne, and around the throne, were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back. 7 The first living creature was like a lion, the second living creature like a calf, the third living creature had a face like a man, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle. 8 The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying: <br/><br/><br/></font><font face='verdana'> “ Holy, holy, holy,[f]<br/></font><font face='verdana'> Lord God Almighty, <br/></font><font face='verdana'> Who was and is and is to come!” <br/><br/></font><font face='verdana'>9 Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying: <br/></font><font face='verdana'> 11 “ You are worthy, O Lord,[g]<br/></font><font face='verdana'> To receive glory and honor and power; <br/></font><font face='verdana'> For You created all things, <br/></font><font face='verdana'> And by Your will they exist[h] and were created.”<br/></font></blockquote><font face='verdana'>(Rev 4, NKJV)<br/><br/></font><blockquote><font face='verdana'>12 I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold,[e] there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon[f] became like blood. 13 And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. 14 Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. 15 And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders,[g] the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, 16 and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! 17 For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”<br/></font></blockquote><font face='verdana'><br/>(Rev 6, NKJV)<br/><br/></font><blockquote><font face='verdana'>The Woman, the Child, and the Dragon<br/><br/> 1 Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars. 2 Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth.<br/>3 And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. 4 His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born. 5 She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne. 6 Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days.<br/><br/>Satan Thrown Out of Heaven<br/> <br/>7 And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, 8 but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them[a] in heaven any longer. 9 So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. <br/>10 Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. 11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. 12 Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.”<br/><br/>The Woman Persecuted<br/> <br/>13 Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child. 14 But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent. 15 So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. 16 But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. 17 And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.[b]<br/></font></blockquote><font face='verdana'><br/>(Rev 12, NKJV)<br/><br/>Man, that last scene? <i>Tengen Toppa Gurrenn Lagann</i> has nothing on that!<br/><br/>You want to do something ecchi or hentai? The Bible offers plenty of scope for that (of course, you'll have to expand it as the Bible does not often go into too much detail of how things worked out). For example, there's Lot and his daughters after they got him good and drunk. Then there's David and Bathsheba. And Jacob who was tricked into having Leah before Rachel (which is itself a funny as well as ecchi scene). Judah and his daughter-in-law Tamar. And the one book in the Bible that goes into mega-detailed expansions of love scenes, the Songs of Solomon.<br/><br/>Yes, all in all, if you anime writers want to have ready-made material for a really good series, the Bible is a fairly good place to start.<br/></font><br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=2e3f8e71-3148-8c36-af8f-3a4f11b106da' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>http://gregorys-rantsite.blogspot.com/2009/09/anime-awesomeness-and-badassery.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Gregory Kong)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30952229.post-6762001202329912785Sat, 26 Sep 2009 16:41:00 +00002009-09-27T00:42:16.685+08:00The Damaged Human Condition<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><font face='verdana'>All people have some form of damage or another. Generally speaking, of course, most kinds of damage are not fatal or life-threatening, and you might not even be aware of it, because this damage is not necessarily expressed in physical terms.<br/><br/>A sociopath, for example, has a damaged psyche precisely at the place where the conscience lives. The have little if any sense of empathy or sympathy, and they do not have an impulse governor which stops them from anti-social behaviour. A milder version of this might be what we call 'thick-skinned'. It's not that a sociopath is likely to become an unholy demonic terror, but that sociopaths are not restrained by their conscience. You can have a sociopath who's a principled man, for instance, and he masters his impulses intellectually, because he has made the conscious decision to comport himself with the laws of the land.<br/><br/>Autistic people on the other hand have damaged on underdeveloped socialising skills. While a sociopath does not see other human beings as <i>people</i> such as himself, but rather as puppets to be toyed with, an autistic person may very well know that here is another human being, but is utterly unable to interact with the other person. Mildly autistic behaviour can be manifested in people with Asperger's, and even milder versions of such behaviour can be noticed in nerds, geeks, otakus and the like.<br/><br/>And then, of course, you do have damage that manifests itself physically; cancer, genetic diseases such as cystic fibrosis and haemophilia, congenital defects such as blindness or deafness (which can also be the result of accidents or just an accumulation of crap the world throws at us on a daily basis), and so forth.<br/><br/>An interesting form of damage is what we call psychosomatic diseases, which are essentially mental stresses manifesting themselves physically. Believe it or not, the fear of needles has its roots in the vasovagal reflex reaction, which is a real problem that causes plunging blood pressure and probable unconsciousness. The fear of certain words (yes, words, don't ask me why) can actually leave me trembling and too weak to move for minutes. Well, not so much the words themselves, I suppose, but what they represent. The term vasectomy, for some reason, is a sure-fire way to kill me.<br/><br/>Well, anyway, all of this has a point to it. We are living under a curse. And it's a powerful one. This curse has incredible far-reaching effects - and one of its effects is to render a large chunk of humanity completely insensate to it. The curse has deprived us of agelessness and immortality, dominion over the world and every living thing in it, lordship over Earth, and has introduced pain and suffering and grief in its place. It has sundered our access to the spiritual world and the supernatural realms from our space-time continuum, and has twisted all paths but one to lead to either nowhere - if you're lucky - or to darkness and doom and damnation. It poisons all our attempts to blot it out; food, drink, glitz and glamour, sex, drugs, music, literature, plays, TV, friendly companionship... it all sours after a while. It has permanently damaged and distorted the rightful relationships between man and woman; brother and brother; man and God. Worse; its effects cannot be escaped or nullified from within - it is a universal curse. <i>This</i>, above all else, is why everyone of us has one form of damage or another.<br/><br/>But there is a way to break the curse. There is a way to escape it. There is a way to regain all that we have lost by our ancestors' willful actions in wanting to go our own way. Jesus is that Way.<br/></font><br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=8e225b41-a602-8eb0-ae48-1fcce150881b' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>http://gregorys-rantsite.blogspot.com/2009/09/damaged-human-condition.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Gregory Kong)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30952229.post-4080531492281236569Fri, 25 Sep 2009 12:13:00 +00002009-09-25T20:14:15.722+08:00Thanks, Chris!<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>I hope you've gotten the second payment - they certainly took it from my CC. The only problem is that either the idiots at the USPS or the morons at Pos Malaysia decided it was a good idea to squoosh the drawings in half and shove it into my postbox. Next time, I'll pay extra for FedEx or UPS or DHL or something other than government-run bureaucrats.<br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=2832bb50-9741-8e0d-9bfc-be2c36491c0f' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>http://gregorys-rantsite.blogspot.com/2009/09/thanks-chris.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Gregory Kong)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30952229.post-3818244919742283008Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:43:00 +00002009-09-25T20:20:17.158+08:00The Unity of Christians<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><span style="font-family: georgia;">You know, I was going to put up a post - and a long one too - with regards to Roman Catholics and their strangeness in refusing Holy Communion (also known as the Last Supper, or the Eucharist) to non-RCs. Well, to be more precise, to 'other Christians who are nonetheless not in full communion with the Roman Catholic Church'.<br /><br />And oh boy, it would have been a major post. I would have gone into the specific reasons why the RCs prohibit Holy Communion save under exceptional circumstances (and impose conditions even when those circumstances are encountered), why those reasons didn't hold up, and what they were doing was actually a divisive act and not in keeping with the mission of the Church Universal.<br /><br />But then, I found out to my dismay, that there are other Christian groups who are equally blockheaded and moronic in their insistence that <i>their</i> way was the right way (or that they were the <i>only</i> group who truly obey God, and that <i>their<span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"> </span></i></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">worship is true worship). So, I decided to expand my post a little bit and address what I see to be the core issue.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;"> This much is true; the universal church has no divisions. We are all members of the Body of Christ. We are all brothers and sisters (the term Christian was originally a derogatory one, something along the lines of 'Bible thumper' or 'God-botherer') in Christ. Paul went to great lengths in his epistles to wipe out potential tensions and divisions in the church. Jesus in His prayer asked that we may all be one, as He and His Father are one.<br /><br />I agree, by the way, that denominations are not what God wants out of His people. We're not going to Heaven and asking which of us was Baptist and which of us was Anabaptist. But the question is, is it really so bad as to say that we are entirely different churches - or faiths, and that we worship entirely different gods? The answer to that should be... not really, not any more. Yes, there was a time when the wrong answer could have you tortured and killed. That time is no longer, and should never have been.<br /><br />You see, the way we think of denominations has been warped over the centuries. Well, to be sure, when this first came up, it was a matter of importance, and it came up right from the very beginning. The first hint of a denominational split can be seen from Paul's own letters, where he describes a potential rift between people he baptised, and people Apollos, a fellow church-worker, baptised. Paul deals with this in his usual no-nonsense manner, asking bluntly whether Paul was crucified for their sins, or whether it was Apollos' body which was broken for them.<br /><br />It continued on; you can see this in Gnosticism, Arianism, Monophysitism, and countless other doctrinal differences which the church summarily dealt with as heresies. But what we would consider as the first true denominational split occurred around the 10th century AD, when the Eastern Orthodox churches and the Roman Catholic church would split from one another. The split wasn't really over doctrine, or even worship methods, mind you, it was over church governance. The Orthodox churches believed that since the Apostles died, apostolic authority died with them, and the churches should be self-governing, fairly autonomous with a minimal hierarchical structure, and the highest administrator would be the Patriarch over a particular geographical area. The Roman church, on the other hand, believed that apostolic succession was maintained in Rome, as St Peter, upon which the church was built, laid his hands on his successor the Bishop of Rome (and the Bishop of Rome subsequently lays his hands on other Bishops and so forth). Hence the Bishop of Rome should be the Big Kahoona, or the Pope (Father).<br /><br />We all know about the Protestant Reformation movement, and since then there have been even more denominations that have come up. But here's the thing; with no exceptions, denominations are basically segmented by either (a) geographical location or (b) certain specific worship traditions/rites. The Anglicans are basically offshoots of the Church of England. The Methodists are an offshoot of the Anglicans. The Lutherans threw out the unbiblical and quite frankly sacrilegious practices of the RCs during the time of their formation. The Presbyterians are the Church of Scotland. The various Orthodox churches are named after their locations; Greek, Syrian, Russian. The Baptists practice full body immersion baptism and strict teetotalism. Messianic Jews (Jewish Christians, the first Christians there ever were) maintain the Law of Moses in its fullness. By the way, I don't have a major problem with that; it's quite clear that they do so as a matter of choice (and out of a sense of obligation, true, but I do not believe they think it is salvific in nature). Generally speaking, we ALL agree on the doctrines of Christianity; what is a salvation issue and must be defended to the end, and what is not and hence a matter of choice.<br /><br />Okay, there are exceptions, where doctrine is the separating issue. There is the Roman Catholic church. And there are the cults, who are not considered Christian in any sense, except as Christian heretics. Which is why there are a number of Christians who think the RCs should be considered a cult as well. But they do agree on the salvation issues as well, so maybe we can cut them some slack.<br /><br />The point is, Paul himself says that for issues that are not core (i.e. not as important), freedom and not stumbling your brother are the two main points to consider. Some Christians (like the Messianic Jews) do not believe in eating food offered to idols. Others (like the Seventh Day Adventists) believe in keeping the Sabbath (Saturday) holy. (Just noting that the ISO calendar defines Monday as the 1st day of the week, so maybe they should be keeping Sunday holy instead). In both instances, Paul says let everyone be persuaded in his own mind. So if the Baptists insist on not getting drunk, this is alright. And the Anglican believes that only ordained men can be celebrants of Holy Eucharist, this is alright too.<br /><br />And so, at the end of the day, almost all denominations break down to a bunch of people who generally feel comfortable with a given set of worship practices and traditions. As we are all different, and we all play different roles in Christ's Church, I do not believe that we should use denomination as a stumbling block. Mind you, I look forwards to the day when I can say unambiguously, "I am a Christian", and not have to qualify that with "I am an Anglican". That day is closer than you'd think, though - many newer churches don't care about denominations any more.<br /></span><br /><div class="zemanta-pixie"><img alt="" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=017060b3-bfa7-8c69-a044-b4c619b31152" /><br /></div></div>http://gregorys-rantsite.blogspot.com/2009/09/unity-of-christians.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Gregory Kong)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30952229.post-2967367224349038374Wed, 23 Sep 2009 16:33:00 +00002009-09-25T20:22:41.711+08:00The End Of The World: Is That So Bad?<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Well, yes, yes it is. To any conservative, this is an obvious answer. After all, the way I understand my strain of conservatism;<br /><br /></span><br /><ol><li><span style="font-family: georgia;">Because humans are generally prone to failure and lack much foresight, it is always better to deny or delay new laws and new ways of doing things until we are sure they don't have any unintended side effects or consequences.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: georgia;">By the same token, we hope that our forebears understood the same thing, and therefore whatever laws and ways of doing things we currently carry on from the past would have had the necessary testing and trials by fire.</span></li></ol><span style="font-family: georgia;">Hence, while change is the only constant, it does not follow that it is always a good thing. Of course, sometimes it is the right course of action, but usually the best kind of changes are those that bring us back to the fundamentals. And in any event, there is usually nothing wrong in examining and testing things out first.<br /><br />The end of the world, by definition, will completely wipe out our current existence; we may carry on living, but our ways of life and thinking will forever be altered, and there will be no turning back. No conservative on the face of the planet will sign up for that, unless it is really going back to the way things were really meant to be in the first place.<br /><br />Scientists are (or should be) inherently conservative creatures. You do not change the understanding of the nature of physics unless you have compelling proof; proof that will satisfy a hard scientist is not something you throw together in a matter of hours. Technology progresses and changes at a rapid pace, sure - but the underlying sciences do not.<br /><br />In Christian theology, however, the end of the world, while not something to be wished for or hastened or predicted, is however to be prepared for. It is a time when God declares human history to be at an end, and prepares Creation for judgement. We do not know when this will happen; we do know what must happen first, and so in a sense we 'know' when it will not happen yet (for example, one of the things that must happen before the end of the world is that every tribe and every tongue must have had the chance to hear the Gospel and turn to Jesus - God does not say that <i>we</i> have to do the witnessing because He is quite capable of doing it Himself, but it is a reasonable assumption). This is a major change, and our ways of life will be irrevocably altered. Unless, of course, our way of life is already closely matching the way our new life is supposed to be like. Then the change will not be so terrifying.<br /><br />On something of a tangent. In the anime series Clannad, one of the episodes deals with a girl who lost her parents due to an airplane crash on her birthday. The details are unimportant, but one of the things that make this series one that tugs on the heartstrings is a short segment on how her parents' last thoughts were of her, and of making sure that her birthday present and their last well-wishes - possibly penned in the last moments before they hit the ocean - reached her. They placed the present - a teddy bear - and a letter that asked the finder to pass it on to their daughter in a suitcase, which passed from person to person, country to country, continent to continent, until after several years it finally reached the hands of the girl. It is a short segment, but a powerfully emotive one as we see the travels of that battered suitcase - and hear each person in his or her own language asking the next bearer to pass it on.<br /><br />Why do I bring this up? Because in a way, it reminds me of what is to come. In <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+7&amp;version=NKJV" target="_blank">Revelation 7: 9-10</a>, St John records,<br /></span><br /><blockquote><span style="font-family: georgia;">9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”<br /></span><br /></blockquote><span style="font-family: georgia;">Which is why we say that the world will not end until this comes to pass - that every tribe and every tongue is represented in that great throng in Heaven. But God has His own ways of ensuring this comes to pass - so it's not as if we should be complacent about it either.<br /><br />Now, just to give you a glimpse of how radically different the Christian concept of Heaven (and eternal life) is to the rest of whatever other religions have to say, you have to grasp the love and the intimacy that ideally exists mother and child, father and son, husband and wife, brother and sister. Now, picture those emotions, the commitment, the closeness... and now understand that we will be sharing that with everyone else in Heaven, and individually and corporately, with God our Father through Christ our Brother. That's how the Church Universal is described; as the Bride of Christ. Now you know why Jesus says in Heaven there is no marrying or giving in marriage - because there is no need. The closeness, the intimacy that was previously sanctified and celebrated and exemplified only within the holy institution of marriage is now available to everyone. Our fellow Christians are our brothers and sisters. There will be no more hunger, and no more thirst, and no more sadness, for God will fill our every need and desire. We will be clothed in the Glory of God, and His Presence will light New Jerusalem. There will be no more war, no more pain, no more sorrow. Every day will be the best day ever, because every day will be spent in God's presence singing God's praise, and every day will be better than the day before.<br /><br />You know, some of you might be thinking, jeez, what a boring afterlife, but think harder. What would your ideal afterlife be like? Playing unlimited PvP WoW? Unlocking all the mysteries of the universe? Having an unlimited stomach capacity in the universe's largest buffet with a global selection of foods, wines and spirits? Having an eidetic memory and being able to read all of history's works, hear all of the music in all of time, see all the plays, maybe watch history unfold and knowing what <i>really</i> happened during the Flood? Becoming a demigod with incredible powers?<br /><br />Hmph, how limited a vision. God says that he who truly receives and believes the Gospel and turns to Jesus with all his heart is already more than a conqueror, a prince and co-inheritor of the Kingdom of God, enrolled in spiritual warfare against not flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities, fully armed and armoured by God, and upon death exempt from God's condemnation, having received His mercy and grace, provided with Human Body 2.0 (Resurrection version), which by Jesus' demonstrations is pretty awesome, having all physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual needs filled to overflowing. He will never be lonely, because he will be surrounded not only by his fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, but by God our Father Himself. Every day he will learn something new, something awesome and something incredible, which will cause him to praise God more and more; not that he needs any further encouragement, because praising God is the right thing to do anyway. If you thought the Internet was pretty cool for allowing all kinds of people all over the world to communicate to each other, imagine what Heaven is like, with people across <i>time and space</i>.<br /><br />People do ask, you know, why Christians believe what we do. I do not presume to speak for anyone else, but this is my answer; nothing else makes real sense. Agnostics cannot give a clear answer to save their afterlives; it's all a Great Maybe to them. Atheists answer, but it is a bleak, soul-crushing answer, and quite frankly, what is the point of consciousness <i>now</i> when it becomes oblivion <i>then</i>? Hindus and Buddhists sacrifice their individuality for nirvana or enlightenment, which also snuffs out your being in favour of becoming One with... whoever. Yeah, thanks, guys. Let's not even talk about the Muslims, whose idea of a physical, sensual Paradise cannot even agree amongst themselves whether you get 6 dozen nubile females or seedless dried-up old prunes.<br /></span><br /></div>http://gregorys-rantsite.blogspot.com/2009/09/end-of-world-is-that-so-bad.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Gregory Kong)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30952229.post-9152358702411085283Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:13:00 +00002009-09-21T22:13:02.198+08:00Author Review - Edward Marston<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><font face='georgia'>First, a little rant about the way literary publishers treat their customers.<br/><br/>Almost everything can be delivered digitally nowadays; from music to videos to sermons to software to TV. In most cases, the cost is a mere formality, and in many cases, free (for examples, check out <a href='http://www.hulu.com' target='_blank'>Hulu</a>, or <a href='http://www.joost.com' target='_blank'>Joost</a>, or <a href='http://www.crunchyroll.com' target='_blank'>CrunchyRoll</a> for anime/TV). So why is it that so, so many book publishers can't do something as simple as ebook delivery in a universal open format readable by everything under the sun?<br/><br/>Now, there's no doubt I prefer electronic formats in many cases, but not all. Isaac Asimov came up with an essay on why we should prefer paper-based books; he's got a point. They last <i>much</i> longer in terms of physical medium (properly treated, manuscripts can last thousands of years; try that with even optical discs), super-portable, required minimal energy to use (sunlight works quite well), etc and so forth blah blah blah. But you can't beat free.<br/><br/>Baen gets this right. There is even <a href='http://baencd.thefifthimperium.com/' target='_blank'>a site out there</a> that serves up almost everything Baen has ever published for free, courtesy of Baen. In CD format, of course, since what they do is distribute the CDs with selected books as a promotion - but they allow redistribution. Baen itself maintains a limited selection of works from authors who volunteer their works in this manner. This is the <a href='http://www.baen.com/library' target='_blank'>Baen Public Library</a>. What's even better is that the exact same mechanism is used to deliver their ebooks via their <a href='http://www.webscription.net' target='_blank'>Webscription</a> service. That is, every ebook that is delivered to you via Webscription comes in multiple formats (RTF, PDB, LIT, HTML amongst others), all open and all (once you have it) technically shareable.<br/></font><font face='georgia'><br/>Now, let's go to another ebook publisher, <a href='http://www.ellorascave.com/' target='_blank'>Ellora's Cave</a>. Yes, it's erotica, and no, I've not shopped there before, so take this with a large pinch of salt. But notice amongst all the pretty pictures and all the nicely-written hype they don't bother telling you what formats your book's available in. That's because you get to pick. One. And if you regret it, you get to pick. Another one, upon which you PAY AGAIN.<br/><br/>Stupid, stupid, stupid. This is the Internet age, baby. People are going to convert your pretty little DRMed format (or even if it's open) into something more useful, like a PDF or an RTF, so you might as well offer the various options upfront.<br/><br/>---<br/>OK, time for a slightly lighter tone. I'm going to continue with my author review series, and this time with a lesser-known name, <a href='http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/M_Authors/Marston_Edward.html' target='_blank'>Edward Marston</a>.<br/><br/>Edward Marston is the pen name of Keith Miles, and he specialises in detective/crime novels. But set in an earlier era, say, oh, post-1066 England, or Puritan times, or Elizabethan times.<br/><br/>I was going to link to some of his books, but if you click the link above, you'll get a reasonably complete bibliography, complete with some Amazon links (of course, the guy's an affiliate, but so what, so am I).<br/><br/>However, you will note that some of the series don't get linky love (why?) so I'll do what I can to remedy that.<br/><br/>The Domesday series is the first one that I read, and I got hooked on it really fast. It's about two census officials, Ralph Delchard, a full-blooded Norman, and Gervase Bret, a half-Saxon. Now, this takes place pretty much after William the Conqueror won the Battle of Hastings (well, a few years later, at any rate), so you can imagine there's still a lot of resentment towards the invaders. It's an interesting read.<br/><br/><a href='http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312099428?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=raothbig-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=0312099428'>The Wolves of Savernake: A Novel (Marston, Edward. Domesday Books, V. 1.)</a><img width='1' height='1' border='0' style='border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;' alt='' src='http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=raothbig-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=0312099428'/><br/><br/><a href='http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312113307?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=raothbig-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=0312113307'>The Ravens of Blackwater: A Novel (Marston, Edward. Domesday Books, V. 2.)</a><img width='1' height='1' border='0' style='border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;' alt='' src='http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=raothbig-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=0312113307'/><br/><br/>That ought to be enough to get you started. You can go on to the Nicholas Bracewell series next, which he wrote first but I picked up later. It's about the bookkeeper (manager/accountant) of a theatrical troupe, and of course the troupe itself. Remember, this is during Elizabethan times, when actors were looked on </font><font face='georgia'>very much </font><font face='georgia'>like prostitutes. Okay, a bit of an exaggeration, but close.<br/><br/>Then you can go on to the Restoration Mysteries series, which is about the unlikely friendship between </font><font face='georgia'>architect </font><font face='georgia'>Christopher Redmayne and </font><font face='georgia'>constable </font><font face='georgia'>Jonathan Bale (who happens to be a Puritan). <br/><br/><a href='http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/074727584X?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=raothbig-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=074727584X'>The King's Evil</a><img width='1' height='1' border='0' style='border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;' alt='' src='http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=raothbig-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=074727584X'/><br/><br/><a href='http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0747262578?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=raothbig-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=0747262578'>The Repentant Rake (A Restoration mystery)</a><img width='1' height='1' border='0' style='border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;' alt='' src='http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=raothbig-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=0747262578'/><br/><br/>Why do I like these stories? Well, due to the historical background, I suppose, and the Christian-ness of the setting, I guess. Plus, the murders, heh. Now, it does have romance of sorts in these books, but it's understated and the storyline is more the murder and stuff. If you've read Brother Cadfael before, then you'll have an idea of what to expect from Edward Marston.<br/><br/>For whatever reason, Borders doesn't stock it in Malaysia, and neither does MPH, which kinda limits my choices. And by the way, don't bother looking for it via P2P either; I tried no dice.<br/></font><br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=599c6982-b1cd-848d-be6b-e36f3727fb2a' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>http://gregorys-rantsite.blogspot.com/2009/09/author-review-edward-marston.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Gregory Kong)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30952229.post-7957491699748051367Sun, 20 Sep 2009 13:51:00 +00002009-09-20T21:52:32.878+08:00Hot Air finally strikes back<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>Okay, so onto the story of LGF vs the Right-Wing Blogosphere. This will probably get my account banned for sure, but let's see.<br/><br/>So LGF has been embroiled in a holy war with the rest of the Right-Wing Blogosphere, starting with <a href='http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/' target='_blank'>Gates of Vienna</a>, then <a href='http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/' target='_blank'>Atlas Shrugged</a>, <a href='http://www.jihadwatch.org/' target='_blank'>Jihad Watch</a>, <a href='http://rsmccain.blogspot.com/' target='_blank'>The Other McCain</a>, <a href='http://pajamasmedia.com/' target='_blank'>Pajamas Media</a>, and the list goes on and on and on. The banhammer has been falling mightily and swiftly over the past year and some, and now LGF is almost indistinguishable from a lefty blog.<br/><br/><a href='http://hotair.com/' target='_blank'>Hot Air</a> has been linking to LGF as part of the GWOT, but after LGF commenter Killgore Trout spammed the comments section with racist terms (I understand he's been very fond of the word nigger, although presumably Allah and Ed have been hard at work cleaning it up; as for me, I'm late to the party so anyone with more details please do let me know).<br/><br/>Well, after that, Hot Air decided to do a bit of housekeeping...<br/><div align='center'><a href='http://rsmccain.blogspot.com/2009/09/lgfs-kilgore-trout-attacks-hot-air.html' target='_blank'><img src='http://lh3.ggpht.com/_b55XpT16Hks/SrYxLOl46xI/AAAAAAAABWQ/qAzjm2_nN88/%5BUNSET%5D.png?imgmax=800' style='max-width: 800px;' title='Hot Air moves LGF to Left Channel' alt='Hot Air strikes back, LGF no longer partner in GWOT'/></a><br/></div><br/>So long, LGF. It was good knowing you. Come back anytime, there's always going to be a soft spot and a hard blogroll for you.<br/><br/>PS <a href='http://rsmccain.blogspot.com/2009/09/lgfs-kilgore-trout-attacks-hot-air.html' target='_blank'>Robert Stacy McCain</a> says if I link to him, he'll guarantee a link back. I have no problem being a link whore for a while, so here it is :)<br/><br/><br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=9f2723df-714a-8e07-b46e-834ed9ec4e0b' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>http://gregorys-rantsite.blogspot.com/2009/09/hot-air-finally-strikes-back.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Gregory Kong)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30952229.post-6834855061968553424Sun, 20 Sep 2009 12:56:00 +00002009-09-20T21:07:09.161+08:00Animes I have watched and am watching<div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Apropos of nothing, simply because I have another 2 days worth of weekend, here's a short list of anime I can recommend to anyone (but especially young men, because that's the genre I'm normally stuck on "shonen"). Please note that I am Chinese, and like the Chinese, other North Asians (Japanese, Koreans, Vietnamese, etc) have surnames first, given names last. You guessed it, most of these are 'recommendations' from TVTropes.<br /><br /><ul><li>Yu-Gi-Oh! The original one, at any rate. The English dub is fairly alright (which makes it a Surprisingly Good Dub), although the Japanese one has better melodies.</li><li>Ranma ½. Again, the English dub is pretty good. Funniest show I've seen in ages. But it is a Takahashi Rumiko work, so you really need a lof of patience with the Takahashi couple that Ranma and Akane are.<br /></li><li>InuYasha. Another Takahashi work; note that most of her works are NOT completely animated primarily because they are soooo looooonnggg.<br /></li><li>Yu Yu Hakusho. Well, this one was the first anime that really started my inner <i>otaku</i> going.<br /></li><li>Naruto. Seriously.<br /></li><li>Nogizaka no Himitsu. Man, they should have labelled this an 'ecchi' anime, because there's plenty of <a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Fanservice" target="_blank">fanservice </a>in terms of <a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PantyShot" target="_blank">panty shots</a> and even the odd yaoi scene (although that's in the manga Haruka reads, subsequently fainting and getting convenient amnesia).<br /></li><li>Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu. Watch this, watch this!<br /></li><li>Azumanga Daioh. Words fail me.<br /></li><li>Lucky Star. You know Azumanga Daioh above? Well, imagine that <i>on crack</i>. Oh yeah, this is worth it.<br /></li><li>Saber Rider. Yes, this goes back to my childhood days. Real retro.</li><li>Tenshi na Konamaiki. Eh, could be better.<br /></li><li>You're Under Arrest. 3 seasons, several OVAs, if you can get this. PS check out Aoi Futaba the trannie police'woman'. Ain't nobody can tell me she's a man, baby.</li><li>Koukaku no Regios. Taka Fansubs started this one, and so far it looks good. I don't know if there will be a second season, but I do surely hope so.</li><li>Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood. This is the second anime, which apparently follows the manga storyline much closer. Be reminded that the first anime goes its own way fairly quickly, at the behest of the mangaka (manga author) and it's worth watching on its own.</li><li>Element Hunters. This is targeted at children (so not sex, no romance, and definitely no fanservice). Eh, Dattebayo picked it up which is why I'm following it.</li><li>Midori Days. Short but sweet. Not half bad.</li><li>Ouran Koukou Host Club. Supposedly more of a shojo comedy, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.<br /></li></ul>Anime I am currently watching or plan to watch<br /><ul><li>Maison Ikkoku.</li><li>Urusei Yatsura.</li><li>Hunter x Hunter.</li><li>Naruto: Shippuuden.</li><li>Bleach.</li><li>Suzumiya Haruhu Season 2. Although it probably finished already. But note that half of it is KyoAni (Kyoto Animation) trolling us.<br /></li><li>Kamen no Maid Guy. Now, see, TVTropes calls him hard gay, but I haven't seen any evidence of that yet. BUt I've only finished the first episode, so who knows?<br /></li><li>Scrapped Princess.<br /></li><li>Hayate no Gotoku.<br /></li></ul>I'll update this post with links once I'm feeling more energetic.<br /><br /><div class="zemanta-pixie"><img alt="" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=837d3e6f-5dad-8ee4-9344-0621bf32a991" /><br /></div></div>http://gregorys-rantsite.blogspot.com/2009/09/animes-i-have-watched-and-am-watching.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Gregory Kong)0